MORPHOLOGY

SEMINAR 4

1. In the following text, observe, what classes of nouns appear (common or proper,
concrete or abstract, count or mass, animate or inanimate):

I am accustomed to regard the smallest brook with as much interest for the time being
as if it were the Orinoco or Mississippi. What is the difference, I would like to know, but
mere size? And when a tributary rill empties in, it is like the confluence of famous rivers
I have read of. When I cross one on a fence, I love to pause in midpassage and look
down into the water, and study its bottom, its little mystery. There is none so small but
you may see a pickerel regarding you with with a wary eye, or a pygmy trout glancing
from under the bank. I have stopped to drink at a clear spring no bigger than a bushel
basket in a meadow, from which a rill was scarcely seen to dribble away, and seen
lurking at its bottom two little pickerel not so big as my finger, sole monarchs of this
their ocean, and who probably would never visit a larger water.
(Henry David Thoreau, Journal)
1.

2. Identify the Nominal Groups and indicate their structure (pre-head, head, post-
head).

The first sentence of a story is an act of faith – or astonishing bravado. A story screams
for attention, as it must, for it breaks a silence. It removes the reader from the everyday
(no such imperative attaches to the novel, for which the reader makes his own
preparations). It is an act of perfect rhythmic balance, the single crisp gesture, the drop
of the baton that gathers a hundred disparate forces into a single note. The first
paragraph is a microcosm of the whole, but in a way that only the whole can reveal. If
the story begins one sentence too soon, or a sentence too late, the balance is lost, the
energy diffused.
(Clark Blaise, To Begin, To Begin)

3. The following paragraph contains examples of NGs with two, three or four
elements. Identify them in terms of determiner, modifier, head and qualifier, and
observe how the elements are realised:

Nowadays a number of children and young people have found that mild depression may
be overcome by doing something exciting. This may be going to a pop concert with
music at pain-producing intensity, it may be challenging authority at home or at school
or it may involve stealing or other law-breaking activities. The more depressed they are
the more exciting the challenge has to be to mask their depression.
4. Fill in the slots for the most complex NPs you can construct. Use the Attributes
(a) a lot of, (b) very tall, (c) twenty-year old, (d) in the form of
(b) V infinitives, (e) relative clauses.

Q D/Poss Q A A N/A N P = of PP XP

Each -- --- tall blond play BOY in a Fiat

Mary

story

air

Prague

reading

5. Mark sentence members in the following sentences and show the syntagmatic
relations which form them.
Tvoje sestra pozorovala včera mraky na obloze.
The other boy gave his book to Adam.

6. What is the function (sentence member) of the underlined NP?

What does the NP depend on (what are the syntagmatic = syntactic/ binary
relations)?
(a) I saw a man.
(b) over the hill
(c) new pupil's books
(d) That boy is big.
(e) There is a boy there.
(f) He is a teacher.

7. Which elements do you need to add to create the given syntagmatic relations? Give
at least three examples. What are those elements?
(a) Joe (=Subject) ....................................................................................................
(b) Joe (=Object) ....................................................................................................
(c) Joe (=Attribute) ……...........................................................................................
8. Are the underlined elements heads (N) or phrases (NP? Can you support your
claim? (Can you substitute pronouns for them? What does this imply?)

(a) Your sister arrived later than Hillary.

(b) I met Jim in front of the house.
(c) William introduced his new girlfriend to all the school-mates.
(d) Those tall city towers had been rebuilt before the castle was finished.